[ RadSafe ] "Countdown to Zero" disarmament movie

[Steven Dapra]

Aug. 11

         In approximately 1983 Petr Beckmann delivered a lecture 
about the nuclear freeze movement.  (He took a rather dim view of it.)

         With respect to nuclear war in particular, he said the two 
most important things were "the will to win and the capacity to survive."

Steven Dapra



At 03:02 PM 8/11/2010, Shane Connor wrote:
>Thank you for the response and your encouragement for mass public
>Civil Defense training, Mike.
>
>I'm thinking it might take news breaking of a county or, better yet, a
>state, stepping up and doing it on it's own first, if Fed's hadn't yet, to
>spark national debate questioning and pushing Fed's why they are not.
>
>Of course, with tightening state budgets and top-down management
>attitudes, I don't have many illusions holding out hope we'll see that.
>
>But, who knows, if we saw a nuke unleashed today, and it's aftermath
>all the news then, hopefully somewhere other than here first, then that
>attitude could change in a flash here then, too! The call for Civil Defense
>could be deafening then, let's just hope not too late to still implement.
>
>I'd hoped that when the only county in America that had, on their own,
>re-instituted their public fallout shelters and local radiation monitoring
>networks, we'd of then seen both better national news coverage of it,
>followed by that national debate re Civil Defense, which would lead into
>training of the public, too.
>
>See what Madison County - Huntsville, Alabama, home of our nations
>rocket scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have done there
>http://www.hsvcity.com/video_files/nuke_fallout.wmv and presentation of
>how every county could, too, here 
>http://ynpxtpnb.apollohosting.com/ddponline.org/08-powerpoint/08-paradise.pdf
>
>Shane Connor
>www.ki4u.com
>____________________
>
>Brennan, Mike (DOH) 
><mailto:radsafe%40health.phys.iit.edu?Subject=Re%3A%20%5B%20RadSafe%20%5D%20%22Countdown%20to%20Zero%22%20disarmament%20movie&In-Reply-To=%3C37C41083D3480E4BBB478317773B845D036BD478%40dohmxtum31.doh.wa.lcl%3E>Mike.Brennan 
>at DOH.WA.GOV
>Wed Aug 11 14:51:55 CDT 2010
>
>Hi, Shane.
>
>I don't disagree with anything you've said.  I am convinced that even
>minimal training, combined with more extensive planning, can make a big
>difference.  As an example, I hold up earthquakes.  Haiti was hit by a
>7.0 earthquake, and approaching a quarter of a million people died.
>Chile was hit by an 8.8, and less than 500 people died.  I was less than
>10 miles from the epicenter of a 6.8 here in Washington, in which no one
>died (and yes, I acknowledge there was a fair amount of luck in that).
>While there are a lot of factors in the different casualty numbers, the
>biggest is building codes that take into account earthquakes (and are
>enforced), the next is emergency services, and the next is a public that
>has been trained on what to do (and you can argue the order of the last
>two).
>
>I think a lot of preparation that would be useful in a nuclear
>detonation scenario can be generalized to other, higher probability
>events.  For example, every building built in areas that get hurricanes
>should be engineered to withstand high winds, whether they come from a
>storm of a or a huge natural gas explosion or a nuke.  Same tornado
>areas.  The stores in a secure part of your home work equally well for
>sheltering in place because of fallout or being stuck without power
>during a blizzard. (I, personally, think that trying to drive out of an
>oncoming plume is an excellent way of experiencing it inside a car stuck
>in a traffic jam, or of going from someplace that turns out not to be in
>the plume to someplace that is.)  Knowing basic first aid is good,
>regardless of what caused the injuries.
>
>I wish you success in convincing people.